17 civilians died in Horlivka over the past day, including three children

DONETSK, July 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Cars with refugees got under a shooting attack of the Ukrainian military overnight to Tuesday, which resulted in victims, according to representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic army.

“Tonight at about 1:00 a.m. near Shakhtersk, Ukrainians attacked cars with refugees from Donetsk and Horlivka, about 35 people,” the Novorossiya news agency quotes a source in the people’s militia.

“11 people have been wounded, one woman lost her leg, and her little child has been killed,” the source said.

Attack on Horlivka

Over the past 24 hours, 17 civilians have been killed in Horlivka, including three children, according to the press service of Horlivka’s city council.

“Over the past day, 17 Horlivka residents including three children were killed as a result of an artillery attack on the city’s downtown. 43 civilians have been wounded; they have received necessary medical assistance,” the release says.

Several administrative offices on the Lenin Avenue, Victory Avenue, Rudakov Street, Komsomolskaya Street and neighboring streets have been damaged. In the Nikitovsky district, two private residential houses burned down. Another two houses burned in Mayskiy settlement.

A shell destroyed the upper level of the school No.85 on Rudakova Street. The schoolchildren will have to attend classes in other schools of the city. Kindergartens have also suspended their work.

Several shells hit the territory of the municipal hospital No.2: some facilities of the birthing unit, outpatients’ department, dietetic department, and windows in several pavilions have been broken.

Since July 28, a three-day mourning has been declared due to the tragic events in the city.

Ukrainian attack residential quarters in Donetsk

The Ukrainian army has used Grad multiple rocket launchers to shell a residential neighborhood in Donetsk, the local news agency Novorossiya reported on Tuesday, citing eye-witnesses.

One rocket exploded near a residential building, smashing windows, tearing off roofing and damaging apartments, a local resident said.

Smoke is seen in the courtyards of residential buildings where other rockets have landed, an eye-witness said.

“Trees have been fallen and emergency and ambulance teams have been sent to the area,” the eye-witness said.

Kiev has repeatedly said that it will not carry out massive bomb strikes against populated settlements during its military operation in east Ukraine.

“The tactics of the armed forces, the National Guard and border guards rule out massive bombings of populated areas,” spokesman for the information center of the Ukrainian National Defense and Security Council Andriy Lysenko earlier said.

Lysenko also said in early June that the Ukrainian military was allegedly making “careful preparations” for seizing control of the east Ukrainian towns of Donetsk and Lugansk, without “involving aviation and heavy artillery” “because the president [of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko] prohibited the use of aviation and artillery in these cities.”

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions are involved in fierce clashes as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway regions, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums.

During the military operation, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Many buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.